My Review of the Epson-300W Scanner

After testing the Epson 300W Scanner, I’ve found it works…well enough… It has some great features, but they have been executed properly; it is very compact and perfect for traveling, but has several issues that I encountered during my tests and daily usage (test image/pdf gallery at the end).

Before we lay out all the issues of the scanner, in what seems more like a crucifixion, let’s first start with what is good about the scanner.

## The Good ##

Very quick scanning, it shoots through a stack of single-sided papers at 300DPI very fast and accurately. It was faster than my works Brother Workforce all-in-one

Very accurate automated rotation, adjusting, hole punch removal, and deskew, among other good settings.

The scanner was amazing at rotating and deskewing all scans automatically and only had issues 3 times where the paper was too dark or hand written. It correctly flipped picture, papers, business cards, ID cards and everything else I scanned.

The card slot, I love the quick card slot idea and when it worked, it was a nice touch (more on it below).

Card slot would be more useful if it was accessible while the cover was closed.

The settings, this scanner has so many settings on a PC it’s amazing and they work pretty beautifully and quick.

Magazine/Newspaper mode & image stitching were not tested.

It’s tiny, this thing really is portable (see pics)

Battery life is great.

Charged it and tested it out 2 weeks and I scanned several items during the testing; it still has power and still in my work bag.

Great image quality, it goes up to 1200DPI and looks great.

Small files created at higher DPI, even with 600DPI it created small image file sizes and PDFs.

Effortless double-sided scanning.

There are 2 scanning plates inside, making double-sided scanning just one step instead of 2 like other portable scanners I’ve tried.

## The Bad (very bad) ##

The first issue is the wireless setup.

There is no way to setup the scanner without the PC or smartphone app companion; there’s no WPS button on the device for easy configuration.

Using the smartphone app is overly convoluted, gaudy and glitchy with too many steps required; use manually switch to turn on AP, connect to es-300w direct AP and search for the scanner, then go through setup and manually add WiFi info, then manually turn the switch to WiFi mode and search again for the scanner. This is the procedure you need to do every time you need to switch networks.

this setup is ridiculously tedious and prone to errors.

The apps failed numerous times to find the scanner during setup.

Big Issue #2 is the card slot:

The built-in card slot for business cards and plastic cards doesn’t work for intended use.

Via the phone app it accepted no business cards (except 1 time) and “jammed.”

Via Desktop the few times it actually worked to scan via the slot, it refused 5 business cards.

Only worked on 1 of my 5 plastic cards, American driver licenses; didn’t accept old school ID cards, work ID or credit card.

For best results, you’re required to set the size/type to auto and not business card or plastic card

Scanning issues:

The business card setting with the card slot using my phone doesn’t work. It scans but doesn’t fit any business cards tested (American and Japanese).

Cards were cut off (last 1/4), but plastic card setting size worked for business cards but had issues (noted below)

WiFi scanning from phone and desktop have long delays between scans and settings, but DirectAP and USB were quicker.

Plastic card settings were the proper dimensions for business cards, but the cards (via the card slot) always shifted slightly causing the image to be missing part of the card.

Proper scanning with card slot requires auto size to be set and auto fix document skew.

Didn’t work well on longer pieces of paper (within max allowed). Door knob flyer gets cut off at 11″ every time, no matter what setting used.

Paper jams, the scanner jammed constantly; almost every business card in the card slot caused a jammed, long papers, thin papers, and multiple types of plastic cards, also caused jams.

Feed sensor is glitchy. Ever other scan attempt prompted me, saying there was nothing in the scanner (there was) and it would error out and make me start all over again.

You have to put documents in backward, instead of face up and natural feeling, you have to put them in facing down and it’s not a natural feeling.

You can’t have the phone app open if you’re trying to use the desktop scan application.

Phone application:

Missing half the settings that the PC has like OCR.

UI has a very old look and feel (like it’s 5 years behind).

PC Scanning:

No reference material for what certain options do, so you have to be versed in terminology or quick with Google.

Image quality:

Anything under 300DPI looked pretty horrible.

Another item to note, the scanner is missing built-in cloud connection and storage. For a compact travel scanner, you would think it would have scanning to cloud network built-in or onboard storage so you can scan on the go quickly and have it saved without the need to have a phone or PC available.

!!! REVIEW VERDICT: I would not purchase this scanner as it is for the suggested retail price, but if it was on sale for $100 I might. !!!

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About Hakarune

Trying live life on my terms now
I love to travel and have been to a lot of the US, and want to see the whole world and learn every language I can....
I love humor and sarcasm and use them both all the time, to the point where some people hate me for it, but as they say "Like Father Like Son." My dad is awesome and I love him, I missed not having him around when I was growing up, but now I'm making up for lost time. My dad is like my best friend and is like me, just older and not as hansom. Though I've been called worse than him cause I don't filter what I say (at all) and I'm blunt, honest, and speak exactly what I think as well as am a sarcastic ass to the point of occasionally offending people without meaning to, but that's life. Live it and get over it, and make the best of what time you got, don't sweat the small things.
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